KRASNAYA POLYANA, Russia – The cows never had names. Kaitlyn Farrington knew better. They were commodities, raised on her parents' ranch in Idaho, sold for profit, the lifeblood of the agrarian lifestyle into which she was born. She was a barrel-racin', mutton-bustin' country girl, the sort who helped her dad with his hay crop.
Every so often, a twang pokes through the façade built up over the past eight years, a small reminder of those cows and what they meant. Every time Farrington needed to travel somewhere to snowboard, her parents would sell a few of them. At one point, Gary and Suz Farrington tended to 250 head. Today, they have none.
"Whatever you've got to do," Gary said. "I mean, now look at what we've got."
[Related: Farrington's snowboard surprise a bright spot on an otherwise disappointing day]
Three minutes earlier, he'd hugged his daughter, and didn't want to let go. She was the United States' newest gold medalist, halfpipe snowboarding's newest champion, ranching's newest — and unlikeliest — success story. From the flat of the land to the top of the mountain, Farrington won Team USA its third gold of the Sochi Games — all in snowboarding — and survived the best efforts of the past three Olympic champions to do so.
In addition to her spinning prowess, Farrington exhibited a remarkable amount of patience, sitting at the bottom of Rosa Khutor Extreme Park's halfpipe and waiting for what seemed an interminable amount of time to see whether she would even medal. Thanks to a mediocre qualifying showing, she needed a strong semifinal run to make the finals. Like Iouri Podladtchikov, the men's champion the previous night, she posted the highest score in the semis and kept building on it, getting a 91.75 on her second run in the finals.
She watched American Hannah Teter, the gold medalist in 2006 and leading after the first run, fall short. And then Australian Torah Bright, who won gold in 2010, ended up a half-point behind. And finally American Kelly Clark, the 2002 champ, and still the dominant female snowboarder at 30 years old, dropped into the pipe.
"Go, Kel," Gary said, and he meant it. He was holding an American flag as well as an Australian flag, because he wanted to see Bright succeed, too. Suz clutched an 8½-by-11 picture of Farrington wearing a Christmas hat, with the words COWGIRL UP above her forehead. It's what a swimming coach used to say to her, sweet and folksy, like when she complained about something to her father and he would answer, "Put it on the list."
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